The Early Years Foundation Stage at Kentisbeare School
/web/schoollogo.png?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "School Logo")
🌳 Our Intent: The Best Start in Life 🌳
At Kentisbeare Primary School, our heart’s desire is to provide every child with the very best possible start to their education. We recognise that these early years are the vital "building blocks" for your child’s future. Our curriculum is carefully crafted to be rich, ambitious, and full of wonder, ensuring that our children grow into confident, happy, and unique individuals who truly love to learn.
🌳 Our Implementation: How We Flourish Together 🌳
We believe in providing a safe and stimulating environment where all children can thrive and succeed. We create a space where children learn to believe in themselves and are empowered to achieve their full potential.
Learning Through Play: We know that children learn best when they are having fun! We provide engaging, playful experiences that challenge each child at their own level, ensuring that learning is always an exciting adventure.
High-Quality Interactions: Our wonderful staff act as great role models. Through kind, thoughtful interactions and clever questioning, they help children think deeply and expand their imaginations.
The Magic of the Outdoors: We are incredibly lucky to have beautiful school grounds, and we are often seen taking our learning outside the classroom walls. Whether we are gardening, exploring, or building, we use our outdoor spaces to inspire curiosity and develop a deep sense of awe and wonder about the world around us.
🌳 Our Impact: Ready for the Future 🌳
The result of our approach is a classroom full of children who are not only ready for the move to Year 1 but are also resilient and kind members of our school family. By the time they leave the Foundation Stage, our children have developed the "superpowers" of learning: they are curious, they keep on trying, and they have their own wonderful ideas. They leave us with the confidence to believe that they can achieve anything.
The Early Years Team at Kentisbeare
/web/classes_20260103140131686.png)
Our Early Years Topics
We have created an exciting and ambitious curriculum with a wide range of topics for our Pre-school and Reception children. Each class now follows its own carefully chosen topics, designed to meet the children’s interests and developmental needs while supporting clear progression in learning.
Through each topic, children access all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage, with learning planned through high-quality adult interactions, continuous provision and purposeful play. They are offered rich learning opportunities and engaging experiences that promote curiosity, independence, confidence and a love of learning, while providing strong foundations for the next stage of their education.
We ensure the curriculum that we provide is based on the themes that underpin the Early Years Foundation Stage Development Matters. We recognise the importance of these themes and how they contribute to good learning and development in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
/web/overarchingprinciples_20260103132727124.png)
Our Partnership with Parents: Bridging Home and School
At Kentisbeare, we recognise the fundamental importance of working alongside our families in a true, collaborative partnership. We believe that by working together, we can build a holistic ‘bigger picture’ of every child, ensuring that their successes and achievements, both in school and at home, are celebrated and used to inform their future learning.
ClassDojo: A Window into the School Day
In both our Preschool and Reception classes, we utilise ClassDojo as our primary tool for pedagogical communication. This digital platform allows parents to remain "linked-in" with their child’s daily experiences, providing a real-time window into our rich EYFS curriculum.
-
Capturing the Learning Journey: We use ClassDojo to post "Learning Journeys" and share ‘Wow’ moments. Whether it is a breakthrough in Phonics or a creative masterpiece in our "Superhero" HQ, parents are kept up-to-date with the skills their child is developing in line with the EYFS Statutory Framework.
-
Strong Two-Way Communication: We invite parents to be active contributors by sharing photographs from home via the app. This creates a powerful two-way dialogue; it allows our teachers to recognise and weave children’s home interests into their school day, truly honouring the "Unique Child" principle.
A Community of Celebration
Our School Story page acts as a digital hub for our wonderful school community. It is a space where we share whole-class celebrations, curriculum updates and the vibrant life of our school.
Through ClassDojo, we ensure that parental engagement is not just an occasional event, but a daily reality. This constant communication ensures that Kentisbeare is a place where parents feel heard, involved, and empowered to support their child's flourishing journey through the Early Years.
Our Early Years Curriculum: A Journey of Discovery
At Kentisbeare, we believe that the Early Years are the most magical and foundational time in a child's education. Our curriculum is designed to spark a lifelong love of learning, where curiosity is encouraged, and every child is supported to reach their full, unique potential.
The Heart of Our Practice: How Children Learn
We don’t just focus on what children learn, but how they learn. We place the Characteristics of Effective Learning at the heart of our classroom. These are the "superpowers" that help our youngest learners become resilient, creative, and critical thinkers.
-
Playing and Exploring: Finding out and exploring, playing with what they know, and having a go!
-
Active Learning: Being involved and concentrating, and keeping on trying if they encounter difficulties.
-
Creating and Thinking Critically: Having their own ideas, making links between different bits of learning, and choosing their own ways to do things.
A Rich and Vibrant Curriculum: Development Matters
Following the Development Matters framework, we offer a cumulative and ambitious curriculum that flows from the moment a child joins our Pre-school until they graduate from Reception. Our learning is organised into seven interconnected areas, designed to nurture the whole child:
The Prime Areas: The Roots of Growth These three areas are the foundations of everything we do. Without these, other learning cannot flourish:
-
Personal, Social, and Emotional Development: Cultivating confidence, independence, and the ability to form warm, kind friendships.
-
Physical Development: From energetic outdoor play to the delicate "finger-gym" skills needed for writing.
-
Communication and Language: Immersing children in a language-rich environment filled with stories, songs, and meaningful conversation.
The Specific Areas: The Branches of Knowledge As our children grow in confidence, they branch out into:
-
Literacy: Embarking on the exciting adventure of reading and writing.
-
Mathematics: Exploring the wonder of numbers, shapes, and patterns in the world around them.
-
Understanding the World: Discovering our local community, the wonders of nature, and the diverse world beyond our gates.
-
Expressive Arts and Design: Unleashing imagination through messy play, music, role-play, and art.
Assessment and the Step to Year One
As the Reception year draws to a close, we celebrate the children’s progress against the Early Learning Goals. This provides a holistic snapshot of their "Good Level of Development" (GLD).
At Kentisbeare, we understand that every child’s path is unique. Assessment here is never about a "score"; it is a tool to ensure a seamless and happy transition into Year 1. We walk alongside every child at their own pace, ensuring they have the individual support and encouragement they need to step confidently into the next chapter of their school life.
X